StubHub's crew works in the S.F. network operations center. The firm will be the official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace for more than 30 AEG venues.

StubHub's crew works in the S.F. network operations center. The firm will be the official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace for more than 30 AEG venues.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Employee David Tsai plays table tennis in the break room of StubHub, which has announced a partnership with entertainment giant AEG of Los Angeles.

Employee David Tsai plays table tennis in the break room of StubHub, which has announced a partnership with entertainment giant AEG of Los Angeles.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Image 4 of 4

Employees at StubHub, Fazeel Mufti left and Alex Titiyevskiy hold an informal meeting a break work in the break room in San Francisco after Chris Tsakalakis president of the popular San Francisco Company announced today the signing a deal with Anschutz entertainment that should be a major boost to the secondary ticketing agency Monday Nov. 12, 2012. less

Employees at StubHub, Fazeel Mufti left and Alex Titiyevskiy hold an informal meeting a break work in the break room in San Francisco after Chris Tsakalakis president of the popular San Francisco Company ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

StubHub teams with AEG on ticket sales

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StubHub, which already processes one sports or entertainment ticket every second, is about to get a whole lot busier.

Come January, the San Francisco online ticket reseller will be the place to go to buy tickets on the secondary market for events at dozens of venues throughout the world owned by Los Angeles entertainment giant AEG.

It will also be the "official secondary partner" of the AEG-owned Staples Center, where the Los Angeles Lakersplay and Lady Gaga and the Who are scheduled to perform next year. With the designation comes a host of marketing benefits, including marquee signage and in-event branding.

"This is the first deal of its kind between a large entertainment company and a technology company," said company president Chris Tsakalakis, who is also a vice president and general manager of StubHub's owner, eBay.

Under the deal, announced Monday, StubHub, which has 30,000 sports and entertainment events listed at any one time, will be the exclusive secondary market for tickets purchased through AEG's proprietary e-ticketing platform, AXS. People will also be able to buy the tickets online using eBay's PayPal.

"We'll be fully integrated with the AXS platform, which means we'll be selling a lot more tickets at these events," Tsakalakis said. In addition to the Staples Center, StubHub will be the "official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace" for more than 30 AEG venues worldwide, including the adjacent 4 million-square-foot L.A. Live complex, the Warfield in San Francisco and the Best Buy Theaterin New York's Times Square.

"Globally, the deal will look to integrate with a number of major venues across Europe as StubHub continues to expand internationally," eBay and AEG said in a joint statement. No names were listed, but Tsakalakis cited London's 20,000-seat O2 Arena as an example.

AEG, owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz(a former proprietor of the San Francisco Examiner), has more than 100 entertainment venues worldwide as well as ownership stakes of varying sizes in the L.A. Lakers, Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, U.S. soccer champion Los Angeles Galaxy, cycling's Amgen Tour of California race, and San Francisco's own Zazzle Bay to Breakers.

A subsidiary, AEG Live, is the world's second-largest live concert company, behind Live Nation, which uses TicketsNow, owned by Ticketmaster, as its ticket reseller.

Clearly, a battle of entertainment giants is looming, with StubHub a significant player. The 12-year-old company, which eBay bought for $310 million in 2007, reportedly grossed $325 million in 2011, thanks to the 25 percent cut of every ticket sold through its website.

Under the deal announced Monday, some of that - details not disclosed - will go to AEG, whose ticketing platform will process part of the fan-to-fan transaction. But in a $10 billion market - growing fast with the advent of mobile commerce - there'll be plenty of money to go around for StubHub.

And for eBay, which, with AEG, "will collectively explore additional, future opportunities for innovative solutions to better serve fans for their entertainment needs," the two companies said Monday.

And on the seventh day...: Now that we have California's schools and the state's budget problems squared away, at least for a while, it's time to get on with what Gov. Jerry Brownhas called "the Lord's work."

That would be reforming, or, as some might prefer, "updating" the California Environmental Quality Act, better known to friend and foe as CEQA, which subjects private and public projects to environmental review, often adding considerable time and expense.

The law, which can be applied to projects requiring a discretionary permit, has long been the bane of California businesses, large and small, while attempts to fix it have fallen by the wayside.

But at some point in the new legislative session, probably not before January, a more serious push will be made.

A bill being put together by state Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality, would broaden the exemptions from the law and limit the extent to which projects can be litigated ad nauseam and delayed for years, if not canceled altogether.

While the details are being worked on - and there's going to be some heavy lifting involved, not to mention strong pushback - the general approach has the backing of not only the Brown administration, but also of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who has made CEQA reform "a priority on his agenda ... with the goal of preserving the law's strengths while improving the measure to root out abuses that stifle the economy," his office said in September.

While Steinberg has been having a series of meetings on the issue in Sacramento, a business coalition has sought out stakeholders in several cities, including San Francisco, courting both supporters and opponents of the idea.

"We did a lot of outreach, made numerous calls and sent a lot of e-mails. Some responded, but a lot never responded."

Guardino wouldn't name any of the silent ones, but when thoughts turned publicly to legislative solutions this summer, environmental groups including the Sierra Club - backed by 34 Democrats and led by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael - shot them down.

"We're going to be in it for the long haul," Earp said at the time. "We'll be back."

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